CLU´SIUS
CLU´SIUS (
Κλούσιος), a river of Gallia Transpadana, now called the
Chiese, which rises in the Rhaetian Alps, and forms a considerable lake now known as the
Lago d'Idro, but not mentioned by any ancient writer; after emerging from which it has a winding course for some distance through the
Val Sabbia, and from thence flows for near 30 miles due S. through the plains of Cisalpine Gaul, till it joins the Ollius (
Oglio), about 20 miles above its confluence with the Padus. Polybius (
2.32) speaks of it as forming the limit between the Insubrians and the Cenomani, but it is difficult to understand that this could ever have been the case; it certainly was not so in later times.
The name is written in the Tab. Peut. “Cleusis,” which is a close approximation to its modern form of
Chiese. [
E.H.B]